Adventures in Androgogy

Tag Archives: tough questions

What if, instead of remaining entrenched in our own positions and coming out of our respective corners with gloves raised, we cultivated a culture of curiosity, using our collective knowledge to find answers that alone we may not?

To give a bit of context, Grant had issues with Brown’s position on authenticity and made his comments public and personal. The author of the article suggested another way of using their differences as an opportunity to ask some great questions which could result in benefits to both parties (and to society as a whole).

Davey suggests the following conversation take place:

Now, if I’m Brown, I invite Grant to meet up to engage in the authenticity conflict productively. I start the discussion by getting on the same page about definitions, “Here’s where I think we’re on the same page, here’s where my definition of authenticity doesn’t jive with what you were talking about.” Then I ask for his help, “You know the psych research better than I do, what other constructs could we add to get a better transposition of the concept of authenticity?” “When we look at it that way, what other data become available?” Your article presented some compelling facts about the risks of authenticity in some forms and in some circumstances, what advice would you give my readers about when authenticity is advisable or not?”

These are two brilliant individuals who could, if they worked together, provide all of us (and probably each other) with some amazing insights.

Are we so focused on being right that we stop asking the hard questions for fear the answers might change our minds?